The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-01-06
PALATKA. FLA, JAN. 6. 1887.
the New South. :

The phrase which is current all over
the North just now as taken from
Grady's speech is one with which the
true South has nothing to do. 1t is now
oftenest used and quoted as a condem-
nation of the fathers by the sons-a repu-
diation of old methods, old ideas and the
ceilings peculiar to the generation
which lived through the war. Not by
the sons of the South should such verdict
be accepted without protest. The new
South stands with Grady, and has stood
on the platform from which he spoke for
years, but it is South made new by a
change in external conditions, not by
those which seek their foundations in the
convictions of the people. We do not
repudiate our fathers nor the faith and
policy which made them worthy Of our
reverence, we adapt ourselves to changed
conditions and we turn our energies into
new channels, but the man is the same in
his heart as well as the earth on which
he rests and the sky which bends above
him.
Grady is right, We endorse his speech
fully, but not in the sense accepted at
section, but this fact does not put h M at
variance with his age nor make him un-
true to the manly instincts which recOg
nize the strength of his foe and the hon
esty of an enemy. The South sees, and
has done SO ever since the first heat Of the
Harht haI he
of principle and was decided by Lees
surrender. We doubt if the true leaders o
the South were ever more fully imbued
with belief in the doctrine of State Sow
ereigpty that at this hour, but it is now
a belief which accepts the supremacy OF
the nation and denies the right Of seces
sion. These may be still among our
theoretio al rights, but all right to their
advocacy as rules for practice have been
str. cken away by the decision of the
sword to which we appealed; none but
dotards now would again go into court
on the same issues.
OF all our characteristics, the one
which separates us from other peoples
By the line most clearly defined is our
adaptability. No other race possesses
this In so high degree as the Anglo
Saxon-no family OF the Anglo Saxon
race has developed the trait so highly as
that called American. 1t was this trait.
possessed by our fellow citizens, which
made possible the New South, of
which Grady speaks. The French have
been Landed to the skies for the facility
with which they recovered from the
losses OF the Franco Prussian war: but
the conditions were not changed, and
each went to work after the war to build
up new future, after the manner
worked out by his old training. With
us the case was different. The fouuda-
tions of all business were overturned
aud the soldier turned legislator, the
planter built factory, the bookkeeper
guided the pillow and professional men
did the work which came first to hand.
1t was simply the acceptance of the sit
uation. The same pluck which carried
us to the cid of Massachusetts, in the
Revolution, brought us face to face
with new difficulties and we conquered
them. The South worked as she had
fought, and a New South was born, be
cause she was not conquered in the bat
ties of peace az she had been in war
The New South was born on a battle
field, and only the logic of circumstance
made it the South OF to day. instead of
the Confederacy, for which We began
the fight. If the fruit of our work il
better than we hoped for; if the reward
proffered by high Heaven to conscien-
tious endeavor is fairer than ever pic
tured in our brightest dreams, then We
owe thanks to God and good will to His
instruments, but no shame for our prin-
ciples; no reputation for our efforts; no
oblivion of our fathers in the prosper
ity won by work of which they would
have been as capable as our selves, had
the conditions been reversed.
If the South of to day is new, save by
external conditions, then it is the worse
for her. The adaptability which made
the peaceful planter worthy of place
under Lee, made himself and his son
worthy Of citizenship in the New South.
The same devotion to prime pie which
made him true to the State, left him
loyal to the Union after Appomattox;
the blood shed on the battle field gained
him less glory than the dust Of the cot
ton-field aud the CRIME Of the workshop.
There is New South and new people,
as Grady says, but not in the sense
given his words by many Of our North
ern contemporaries.